Okay, ELA folks: what was your favorite new text that you brought into your classroom this year? Story, poem, book, article—anything you taught for the first time and immediately fell in love with the way it showed up for your students? (And, of course, how they showed up for it!) - ThreadSky

marcusluther.bsky.social • 150 days ago

Okay, ELA folks: what was your favorite new text that you brought into your classroom this year?

Story, poem, book, article—anything you taught for the first time and immediately fell in love with the way it showed up for your students? (And, of course, how they showed up for it!)

Comments

litker.bsky.social•149 days ago

It was an interesting time to be teaching "Animal Farm", I have to say. We were in the depths of it during the US election and the disintegration of the German coalition, and I was reading a biography of Chairman Mao at the same time. Phew.

nancypantsks.bsky.social•150 days ago

Louise Erdich's "Runaways: Indian Boarding Schools" was a good fit for my 7th graders

brianbaron.bsky.social•149 days ago

I taught this article in AP Lang for the first time and it went very well: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/06/magazine/can-forgiveness-play-a-role-in-criminal-justice.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

kenzrandall.bsky.social•150 days ago

Students read “Monuments to the Unthinkable” by Clint Smith. They whined about it being 30 pages, but ultimately had the best conversations and really grappled with the nuances. Their final project was a podcast discussing rhetorical choices, and they smashed it!

marcusluther.bsky.social•150 days ago

Oh, now I'm incredibly curious about all of this! what a cool choice and I'm sure it was incredible

mnkraft.bsky.social•147 days ago

I'll second They Called Us Enemy and Long Way Down.
I also taught "Citizen (Illegal)" by José Olivarez for the first time. It paired so well with They Called Us Enemy.

kuu-hime.bsky.social•150 days ago

oooo this is tough but it’s a tie between Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville, which the kids loved and created so many conversations about free will and the state, and So Many Dungeons by Saidiya Hartman, which helped the kids with understanding how slavery functions in the archive

marcusluther.bsky.social•150 days ago

Oh I've always wanted to teach Bartleby! I need to do that at some point...now I'm even more motivated, haha!

kuu-hime.bsky.social•150 days ago

it’s a great one! i paired it with Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience and kids loved thinking thru the parallels between them (put in prison for disobeying, about Capitalism, etc) and how they approach individuals and the state from wildly different perspectives

thatenglishteacher.bsky.social•150 days ago

Bartleby is 🔥🔥🔥 AND I love the old/new. Kids need to be able to appreciate “literature” and see that it is still being created….by people like them ❤️❤️❤️

kuu-hime.bsky.social•150 days ago

yeah i think the structure of my course helps because im doing a chronological survey course pairing texts written in each era with (more) contemporary texts set in each era (ie pairing Kate Chopin with Toni Morrison’s Sula for 1920s women’s liberation) and that helps kids to feel grounded

kuu-hime.bsky.social•150 days ago

*early 1900s

marcusluther.bsky.social•150 days ago

my head is spinning with the potential now... 🙏

kuu-hime.bsky.social•150 days ago

for their midterm students had to compare and contrast how two texts engaged with a central idea, and some of the kids chose Bartleby and looked at the mechanization and alienation of the worker compared to slave narratives—thinking through social death as antiblackness vs Bartleby’s spiritual death

kuu-hime.bsky.social•150 days ago

i made sure not to let them dissolve the differences between these things. that being said, kids also just love a story about a guy who says “id prefer not to!”

joelrgarza.bsky.social•149 days ago

My jr / sr poetry seminar got *really* granular on interpreting / appreciating craft, so this book on varieties of poetic line (esp line break slash line end) elevated things for us all. HIGHLY recommend

https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/art-poetic-line

kevmcca.bsky.social•150 days ago

The novel A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet. I’ve been teaching the eco-horror novel Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin for a while, but wanted to try out Millet and ACB seemed more accessible and engaging for students.

wrecka.bsky.social•150 days ago

I can't stop talking about Long Way Down.

thevogelman.bsky.social•149 days ago

I taught this in ninth grade for about five years until I moved grade and each year I discovered something new and kind of mind-blowing in that text

wrecka.bsky.social•149 days ago

I have the graphic novel version, too, and the way it's getting my reluctant/avoidant readers to finally try to read something on their own-- unparalleled. It sparks kids to discuss, unprompted. I have never seen anything like it

wrecka.bsky.social•149 days ago

I taught it alongside MacBeth and then asked kids to argue whether English classes should focus on the classics, and this one kid goes, "Well, *you* saw how much more engaged the class was when we started read Long Way Down" lol yes, yes I did.

thevogelman.bsky.social•149 days ago

I’d still say reading both is important, but yes, it’s cool to include works that are an instant connection that’s for sure, and to show kids that literature is alive!

thevogelman.bsky.social•149 days ago

I actually think LWD is Shakespearean in its nuance and layers. I didn’t think that going into my first year teaching it, but we discovered more and more each year.

mnkraft.bsky.social•147 days ago

I taught LWD for the first time this year to a class of 11th and 12th graders and I was blown away by their analysis. When we finished we collectively decided that it belonged in our 10th grade curriculum, so I said goodbye to it. I agree with your Shakespeare comparison.

wrecka.bsky.social•149 days ago

yeah, I liked that they had different experiences with the different texts, and we had such great conversations reflecting on both afterward.

carlrosin.bsky.social•147 days ago

I enjoy LWD and agree that kids tend to do well with it, but I remain wary because of the critique by a Black teacher I greatly respect: she called it trauma-lit, which led me to include supplemental texts (e.g., “No More Elegies Today,” by Clint Smith) to mitigate the risk for students of color.

21stcenturyteacher.bsky.social•149 days ago

Teaching Albert Camus' "The Plague" which is about a pandemic that hits a small town. For the unit, students are to bring their laptops/Chromebooks to reenact distanced learning in my class and for us to unravel the unspoken isolation that they were too young to discuss back during quarantine.

ferreiraeng.bsky.social•149 days ago

‘Superdisappointed’ by Drew Hayden Taylor. My students really loved the story’s readability and content - its voice, its message.

stevechiger.bsky.social•148 days ago

📌

emilykoonce.bsky.social•150 days ago

Paper Menagerie (story) by Ken Liu! (Really, anything by Liu)

Before listening to Lamar Burton’s reading of the story, we tried as a class to follow a YouTube origami tutorial — really great bonding story for class & helped us understand the narrator’s mother more!

emilykoonce.bsky.social•149 days ago

*Lavar!

marcusluther.bsky.social•150 days ago

For me? It was watching students struggle through and thrive with "My Father in English" by Richard Blanco—and then realize that their very struggle was part of the poem itself.

https://getlitanthology.org/poemdetail/183/

21cpedagogy.bsky.social•149 days ago

Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue.

marcusluther.bsky.social•149 days ago

How Beautiful We Were is one of the best books I've ever read—and now I definitely am adding this to my 2025 list!

21cpedagogy.bsky.social•149 days ago

I’m reading that one now! Her writing is just lovely. Also, the audio book is exceptional. The guy reading it is fabulous. Would definitely recommend if you are okay w/audio versions.

mrbgilson.bsky.social•150 days ago

My first time teaching with Lord of the Flies and I really loved
It. Not new but new to me lol

marcusluther.bsky.social•150 days ago

I haven't taught this in over a decade but from what I recall (1) it is fantastic for momentum/engagement in the classroom as you go and (2) there is a lot of symbolic/philosophical potential for exploration if you want to go there, too

mrbgilson.bsky.social•150 days ago

Yeah it went really well

megnev.bsky.social•147 days ago

Definitely Ada Limón’s poem “Downhearted.” https://www.guernicamag.com/ada_limon_10_1_11/

walkersclass.bsky.social•150 days ago

I will be starting it in January, but I can’t wait to teach a new novel to my grade 7s! The Probability of Everything by Sarah Everett

thoughtsthatcarrie.bsky.social•150 days ago

They Called us Enemy worked well with 8th grade in the CA desert. We compared Internment to the Holocaust by making zines as a final assessment.

rickgilson.bsky.social•149 days ago

Try this one for your own or class reading as a follow up.

thoughtsthatcarrie.bsky.social•149 days ago

This one is a necessary read, too.

joelrgarza.bsky.social•149 days ago

Love it! Nerdy English teacher flex: Editor Floyd Cheung is my friend :)

thoughtsthatcarrie.bsky.social•149 days ago

He’s the greatest! ✊🏼

marcusluther.bsky.social•150 days ago

TCUE = one of the best units I'm currently teaching (coming up in February for us)

joelatorre.bsky.social•149 days ago

Used a few of Hanif Abdurraqib's poems to a ton of success and engagement with my eighth graders.

thevogelman.bsky.social•150 days ago

You know my answer…Cloud Cuckoo Land added to the AP Summer reading list. Every student who picked it loved it.

marcusluther.bsky.social•150 days ago

About a year ago this time, if I remember right, we were reading this and exchanging audio debriefs/reflections!

ellenbees.bsky.social•150 days ago

I’m looking forward to introducing Patron Saint of Nothing into a literature circle in January.

2ndarythoughts.bsky.social•149 days ago

This novel is one of my favorites!

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